No Kissing on Duty!

2|JADE

The scent of crushed rose petals hung in the warm morning air, a sweetness undercut by the damp earth smell of the freshly watered garden. My fingers traced the white edge of the rose, thumb catching on a thorn. A blood drew out but I didn’t flinch.

“Jade?”

I looked up. Alestor stood a few paces behind me on the gravel path, his hands clasped formally in front of him, but his posture was softer than usual. Morning sun glinted off the silver streaks at his temples. Basically, I didn’t want Alestor to call me with formalities and I’m fine this way.

“How… convenient. You’re spacing out,” he said, his eyes darting from the rose to my face. He moved closer a bit, wiping the blood smeared on my fingertips with his clean white handkerchief. I blinked, the vivid daydream of my mother’s face dissolving.

“What is it, Alestor? Did you say something?” He shifted his weight, a small, uncharacteristic smile playing on his lips as he stepped back and let the handkerchief seeped the remaining blood.

“My wife’s pregnant.” The words landed softly, then bloomed inside my chest.

My eyes widened and I stood up so quickly the wrought-iron garden chair scraped against the flagstones, the cloth dropping in the process.

“She is?! Oh wow, that’s nice, Alestor! I will be auntie!” The squeal that escaped my mouth was undignified, but I didn’t care. My smile felt like it might crack my own face. He chuckled, a low, warm sound I rarely heard.

Alestor’s gaze drifted past me, toward the high stone wall of the estate, but he was seeing something else entirely. The smile he wore now was private, inward. I had never seen that expression on him before—a quiet, fierce joy that softened the vigilant lines of his body.

A man could look like that, then… when he knew his wife was bearing his child. I recall dad telling me the same stuff. Ugh, I miss him.

“Yeah. And… your dad hired a new guard to look out for you. I have to be by her side while she carries our child. After the briefing today, I’ll be out,” he paused as he looked at my eyes before continuing.

“The guard... He said he will come today. I’ll leave the rest of the work to him.” His tone was final, the professional mantle settling back over his shoulders. I nodded.

“Today?” A part of me, a selfish, childish part, recoiled. I would miss the solid, silent presence at my back, the man who had been more of a fixture than my own father.

“Today,” Alestor confirmed. He hesitated, then reached out and patted my shoulder, a gesture so brief and awkward it was profoundly dear.

“Be good, kid.”